Ties with China to become tense, need deterrence: Ex-diplomat Gokhale

India's ties with China are likely to become tense in the next 10 years due to China's policy and its growing presence in the Indian Ocean, former foreign secretary of India Vijay Keshav Gokhale said on Tuesday and called for steps to build deterrence.

Risk management on a broader political level was also required till India is able to develop the economy to a certain level, he said.

"If I am to make a prognosis of the future trajectory of our relationships from their perspective, I would say they would base their policy on two presumptions," Gokhale said while delivering a special talk on "India-China relations as seen from China's perspective" presided by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi at the Raj Bhavan here.

"Firstly, relations will become tense in the next ten years and more combative along the line of actual control and in the Indian Ocean too because China will have a naval presence in the Indian Ocean," the former diplomat, said. Therefore armed coexistence will be a norm where